The country of Japan is our next destination with several ports. There are 127 million people in Japan that speak Japanese. Some understand and speak a little English, but mostly in the tourist industry. Japan is a country of ancient traditions as well as modern life making it a timeless place. A visit here will reveal temples, shrines, monasteries, Zen rock gardens mixed with modern architecture. Springtime is a wonderful time to visit to see the blooming cherry trees. We have never hit that right time of year, and we will not see it this time either. Good excuse to come back some day. Mt. Fuji is breathtaking and is considered a sacred volcano. We did see the mountain in its glory, covered with snow two years ago. It was stunning and it was COLD. Mt. Fuji is a subject of their most famous artists and poets. Lessons in history will stay with you forever with visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We will be spending two days in Nagasaki very soon, a place we visited back in 2002. Yes, quite memorable. So was the capital of Tokyo where we saw thousands upon thousands of shoppers in the Ginza district. While on a tour we were given an hour to explore one major store in a mall. It was more like squeezing into a can of sardines. No kidding. It got even worse going from floor to floor on the escalators. We could not wait to get back outside and watch the few people that had dog permits walking them in a park across the street. Mostly small breeds pushed in baby strollers by their owners and dressed better than their owners.
So our first port in Japan was Naha, Okinawa where we arrived in the dark and docked starboard. At 7am, the temperature was 73 degrees, the humidity 91% and winds 24.8mph. It was raining off and on all morning and overcast the rest of the day. And there were some tours of course. Panoramic Okinawa was an easy bus ride for 2.5 hours and $120. Best of Okinawa was 6.5 hours for $210 with lunch, while Okinawa in depth was 8.5 hours for $210 also. Ryukyumura Village, Cape Manzamo, and Kokusai St. was 6.5 hours for $170. Gyokusendo Cave, Peace Memorial and Kokusai St was 5.5 hours for $160. Shurijo Castle Park, garden and Kokusai St was 4.5 hours for $140.
But first, we all had a job to do and that was the Naha mandatory immigration inspection for a face-to-face check. A few days ago, we received disembarkation cards for each of us to fill out (instructions included) and a customs declaration form – one per family. We also got a letter of our Group B to go to the terminal at 7:45am with our room cards, passports and filled out forms. Even though that was our designated time, we had the option of going off at any time before 10am or so.
We chose to go to breakfast as usual, and head over around 8:30am. The tour groups got priority as always, so the crowd would be less when we went off. To complicate matters, everyone got a notice last night that all of the ships water would be turned off from 9:30am to 1:30pm. The entire ship - NO WATER anywhere which meant no toilets, sinks or showers. No food service, except sandwiches in the Lido we heard, as they had no water also. Then we were advised to let the faucets run until the water cleared up without a rusty color. This was an unavoidable preventative maintenance, which goes along with the ship being old and getting older by the day. What else could happen? Oh yeah, there was no TV reception at all and it was raining. On our way to the terminal, we got the sad news that one of our longtime friends and among the highest number President’s Club member had passed away. He was one-of-a-kind type of guy and will be missed by many.
The way off of the ship was convoluted with a short gangway at A deck, then a walk through the terminal zig-zag gangway and up a flight of stairs to the officials waiting for us in the terminal. We handed off our forms, showed our passports, got our room cards marked with a blue sticker, then turned around and made our way back to the ship. The same zigzag and stairway seemed to take forever, but the rain had stopped by then. Now we are good to go in every Japanese port where we will be required to take our passports with us.
We did some internet work by the time the water was shut off. We left and headed through the terminal once again to find the road out of the port area. Being here just two years ago, it all came back like it was yesterday. And we did find a nice map at the info desk in the terminal. Maps are always a plus. Our destination would be a hike up to the Kokusai Street area. It was a rather long walk just to get out of this terminal, going through the parking garage and finally out into the main street. There was an optional public transport bus with a one-way fare of 240 yen that would take the folks to the central downtown area of Naha at Kokusai Street. This part of town has the nice malls, souvenir shops by the dozen, hotels, museums, and authentic Okinawa eateries. We like to walk since it was just over one mile with lots of photo ops along the way. Crossing the main highway, we passed through the tall granite pillars of dragons, a monument commemorating peace. These dragon pillars are 15 meters high and 3 meters wide, facing the harbor protecting the island.
Following this street up to the shopping area, there were a few gardens, one of which was Fukushuen Garden, one of the stops for a ship’s excursion. If we had stopped here a month ago, these gardens would have been stunning. The most blossoms we saw today were from the bougainvillea vines, not so much the spring-blooming trees. Another smaller garden was Matsuyama Park with convenient restrooms. Once at the top of this street, we crossed the canal and came upon the RyuBo mall, a multi-level modern building with upscale shops and eateries. It was raining lightly, so we decided to go in the mall to dry off and explore the many departments.
The most interesting section of this mall had to be the bakery with the fanciest cakes, cookies, and sweet treats. All of it looked delicious and seemed very pricey, although it takes a whole lot of yen to equal the US dollar. At 159 yen to the $1 USD, the prices were not all that bad after all. Most passengers have the cell phones with a built in calculator for the money exchange rates. We can do the same math by bringing a small calculator, which one of us seems to forget in every port. Duh….
Walking further down this end of the floor, we came upon the Ryubo Food Hall, which normally we do not consider. However, there were separate full-service venues here and one of them happened to be Franco Italian cuisine and they served draft beer as well. Speaking with the receptionist, we decided this would work fine if we did not find another restaurant in town. We ran into our buddy Heo, who was roaming the department store like us, waiting for friends, one of whom was getting a haircut. Heo shared their exploits with the recent visits in the last couple of ports, since we have not seen them for a few days. We need more sea days.
From here, we made our way to Kokusai Street and followed it all the way to almost the end. Too bad it was raining, since we hesitated going inside most of the smaller shops with dripping umbrellas. Many of these souvenir shops sold Orion beer and Spam t-shirts. This canned meat (??) was most popular during the war years and became a staple for the US military troops stationed here. The locals liked it as well. One of us was looking for a pair of “Spam” socks, which were sold everywhere a few years ago. Of course, all we could see were beer and Little Kitty socks along with tote bags and t-shirts. One item that was sold here was some very eye-catching jewelry sets with deep-blue marble-sized stones. They glimmered in the light, so we checked out a display in a case. They are called Firefly glass stones made with foil and some with silver inside the glass stones. They are said to glow in the dark. The shop was pretty busy, so we did not have a chance to look closer. Maybe next time.
The next search was for a suitable lunch venue, but most all of the restaurants were not to our liking. It was back to the Ryubo Mall for Italian food at The Carino Okinawa. We were seated in a cubbyhole with nice comfortable bench seats and a private table. Ordering was hindered by the fact their menu was a QR code. Hate that. But a sweet waitress used her phone to show us their options. It was simple - large pint-size Orion draft beers to start, followed by a margherita pizza. Easy, right? Not exactly as the beers were correct, ice cold in huge, chilled mugs, but the pizza was not right. It looked more like an appetizer with mystery meat or fish on it. Definitely not margherita, one of us did not feel comfortable to even taste it. We asked our waitress what kind of pizza it was, but she did not know or understand our question. She summoned the chef over who informed us the pizza was a mistake, and he would bring the right one. Bill had tasted the meat, which he finally decided might have been pork belly and not any type of shellfish. We never found out for sure.
The margherita was brought but did not match the photo we saw on the outside wall for this venue. The crust was extremely thin, but the toppings were excellent. One thing we have noticed in Japan is that the servings can be smallish. Sitting close to us was a local Japanese fellow who intervened to help us with the menu. We seemed to be among the few cruise guests dining in here, and the locals are so helpful, even without asking. He helped us chose a tiny dessert to share which was tiramisu. Our final bill was 6270 yen or $39 USD. Not bad considering we had a total of three beers. And they were really good. Also, American Express was accepted. Sitting and relaxing was even better for an hour. But it was time to move on.
Walking back taking our time, we got to the pier by 3:30pm. By then, some of the tours were getting back as well. We worked online until the Captain came on with his update at 6:30pm. Normally, he would not do this during dinner time, but there had been a change with the itinerary and we discovered that we would be spending the evening in the following port of Naze, due to a storm hitting the Nagasaki area. We would be leaving Naze at 5am the following morning and heading towards Nagasaki with a day st sea. He expected to be closing the outside decks on the 9th , the sea day, due to high winds and rough seas.
Dinner had some interesting Japanese items, but we stuck to our usual salads, lamb spring rolls, excellent, and mains of chopped sirloin steak. It was served with a gravy with peas and carrots and really reminded us of Salisbury steak. It was quite good. We each had a small scoop of coffee fudge ice cream for dessert.
Showtime featured vocalist Cassidy Janson singing musical and movie classics. She also filled in with fun stories from her years in show business.
Tomorrow’s port will be a new one for many of us…..Naze (Amami) Japan, arriving early and leaving much later than originally planned. Fine with us and the crew members as well.
Bill & Mary Ann
